Word Level

Word Choices

Words form the foundation of your writing. Like building blocks, you need to select the right words at the right time to produce a purposeful and solid structure.

Take your reader on a journey through use of your word choices. Make deliberate selections that are thought-provoking and rich in meaning. Such choices should intend to evoke an emotional response from the reader. Stimulate their senses such as, sight, sound, touch, taste and scent. Aim for the reader to feel so immersed in your world that the words feel tangible.

Familiarise yourself with the main word classes:

__Noun __

Person, Tom

Thing, house

Abstract- state or emotion that you cannot physically touch, anger

__Verb __

Action, climb

Event, raining

Situation, be, have

Adjective

Describes the noun, luxurious, red, messy

__Adverb __

Gives more information about a verb or adjective, nearly, quickly,

__Pronoun __

__Personal __- Used in place of a noun, often to avoid repetition,

Subjective- acts as subjects of the verbs, I, you, we, he, she, it, they

Objective- acts as the objects of verbs and prepositions, me, you, us, him, her, it, them

Possessive- refer to something that is owned, mine, yours, hers, his, ours, theirs

Reflexive- referring back to the subject of the clause, myself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves

__Preposition __

Show the relationship between the noun and pronoun. Often explaining where something is, above, before, in, under, with

__Conjunction (connective) __

Connect clauses, phrases and sentences

Co-ordinating conjunctions, For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So, (In English grammar there are only seven and you do not place a comma before them!)

Sub-ordinating conjunctions, Whilst, After, Although, Because, Since (In English grammar there many and you must place a comma either directly before them or within the clause!)

__Determiner __

Introduces the noun, a/an, the, this, those,

Interjection

Word or phrase that conveys a strong emotion and often followed by an exclamation mark.

Varied Sentence Openers

Sometimes writers get stuck in a rut of beginning their sentences with the same types of words. Soon this becomes very boring to read. Add vibrancy to your writing by using a range of interesting sentence openers. Challenge yourself to use a different word type for each sentence.

Try using the following ideas in your writing as prompts:

What type of words should you select?

Your answer should include: Thought-Provoking / Stimulating / Rich

Which type of words are mine, yours, theirs?

Your answer should include: Pronouns / Possessive

How can you add vibrancy to your sentences?

Your answer should include: Varied / Openers / Different / Words